Tue 13 May 2014
The annual pension allowance was reduced from £50k to £40k as from 6 April 2014 but where the allowances were not fully used in 2011/12, 2012/13 or 2013/14 the relief brought forward is the actual unused remainder of the £50k allowance, always using the earliest available allowance up first.
So for example, an individual who made pension contributions of £25k in each of 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 is able to use the remaining £75k in 2014/15 in addition to the 2014/15 annual allowance of £40k.
If that person made contributions totalling £65k in 2014/15 that would use up the £25k unused 2011/12 allowance in addition to the £40k allowance for 2014/15. Therefore the unused £50k total from 2012/13 an 2013/14 would remain available for use against contributions over £40k in 2015/16.
HMRC has produced new calculators for:
The calculators are aimed at the more straightforward cases and do not cater for:
but they are likely to be useful in most cases.
They are accessible on the HMRC website. That page also includes links to further HMRC guidance for more complex cases.
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